Has anyone undergone one and what was your experience with it? I am in the process of getting one scheduled and would like some feedback on your experience. I have undergone a 1.5 T MRI and really am just curious as to know if there is any difference between the two. I am sort of claustrophobic, so I'm getting anxious about that, and want to know how much faster it is than a 1.5 T MRI. Also, I have heard this is a pretty good way of ruling out MS, and considering the fact that my symptoms seem to be getting worse as its getting hotter, I really need this for peace of mind. If anyone is interested, I will update this thread with the status and the results I receive. I am hoping to get it scheduled this week as I'm paying for it out of pocket. Its been 8 months that i've been diagnosed with BFS after my initial Brain MRI came clean. If you want to know any symptoms that I have experienced, just check out my comment history.

the only difference is a magnetic field strength. Unless you do not carry any implants, massive tattoes, ferromagnetic staples or artificial joints, there is no danger for you.3 tesla (3T) field increases resolution of the scans and helps to see objecta or irregularities which may be missed on lower tesla detectors becasue their response on stimulation is just too low.

I havent seen many people here say they have taken a 3T MRI. From what i understand, they are known for picking up lesions that a 1.5 T would occasionally miss. Therefore, I feel the only way I can get peace of mind is if I do it on the higher resolution image. Like I mentioned before, my symptoms seem to be aggravated by the heat, and I know this to be a common thing in MS. Although I should add, the other day I went into the sauna (180º F) and didn't feel a thing really. It is quite strange.

well, should you have MS, you'd highly probably will have reaction in sauna, because people often react even in the bathroom where temperature seldom is higher than in the sauna. BFS people are known to have reaction for both heat and cold, so I suppose your 3T scan would be normal too.3T scans are less common because the device already costs a HELL of money (billions USD as far as I remember), and beause they decrease MRi eligibility for patients with implants, prosthetics etc.for most of issues 1.5T is rather enough.I would also like to note that people symptomatic for MS usually demonstrate lesions on MRI (I know several of them by blogs and one person was diagnosed practically in few weeks becasue of available and spreading lesions), so if you have symptomes, and should they be related to MS, the scan should be not clear.

After I had shown areas of vasoconstriction and dilation during a brain MRI/MRA (MRAngiography) in my local hospital, I was sent to a centre of neuroscience for a repeat 3T MRI/MRA.

They are supposed to increase the signal intensity but can give rise to greater amounts of artifacts. An artifact on imaging is defined as the following

" An image artifact is any feature which appears in an image which is not present in the original imaged object. An image artifact is sometime the result of improper operation of the imager, and other times a consequence of natural processes or properties of the human body. It is important to be familiar with the appearance of artifacts because artifacts can obscure, and be mistaken for, pathology. Therefore, image artifacts can result in false negatives and false positives"

Bit long winded explanation so here's a simple example, maybe you remember in school looking at cells down a plain old light microscope, and suddenly you see a big spider crawling along the slide and soon you realise it is not a spider but your eyelashes, the eyelashes are causing an artifact.

So these machines tend to be in more specialised units as they are more complicated to run and interpret.

I dont know if they are better or not in clinical settings, I was informed for angiography of brain vessels it was the best way to go, so I just did as I was told.

They say they can reduce scanning time because the 3T increases in signal intensity so need less repeats of measurements, but I didn't find my time in scanner any shorter even though they started by repeating my previous scan.

One thing I certainly did find is that compared to the 1.5, I was a lot more disorientated when I left the scanner. I felt quite out of it and dizzy for a while. It took a while to lift and I developed a headache from hell for a few hours. I was told that was quite common with the higher magn field etc

Hope this helps and good luck with your scan.

Hx

pps out of interest my MRi/MRA scan in the 3T was clear despite what was seen on the 1.5 scan. They were quite confused and put it down to 1 of 3 things. Either a prolonged migraine aura( I only get visual never normally get headaches), or a resolved vasculitis. or that my vessels may just be reactionary due to me having near fatal bacterial meningitis as a baby which put me in coma. True one pupil reacts slower than the other. I think there was a 4th option, that being THEY HAD NO IDEA, fancy 3T scan in all.

wonder if that is a common thing for optical migrains, since my daughter also has very moderate pains while heavy optical aura.however her 1.5T scan was normal (except two small issues not related to vasoconstriction)